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Short History of Trinity United Methodist Church
At its founding in 1853 Trinity was part of The Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
In 1939 The Methodist Episcopal Church, The Methodist Episcopal Church, South,
and The Methodist Protestant Church united to form The Methodist Church. In
1968, The Methodist Church and The Evangelical United Brethren Church united to
form The United Methodist Church.
Through the efforts of Wesley Chapel, now First United Methodist Church (360
Peachtree St. NE, Atlanta), Trinity Methodist Church began in the home of Martha
and Greene B. Haygood, on McDonough Street, now Capitol Avenue. A year later,
in 1854, the church moved into a new building--the first brick church in Atlanta--built
on Mitchell Street on the site where the Department of Transportation stands today,
immediately south of the present Georgia State Capitol. Wesley Chapel and Trinity
shared pastors until 1856. Methodism was less than 100 years old, and Atlanta's
population was about 6,000.
During the Civil War, in July 1864, as Union General William Tecumseh Sherman's
army approached the city, Trinity Methodist Church was closed and the Reverend
Atticus G. Haygood and his family fled the city. Son of Martha and Greene
Haygood, and later a Methodist bishop and president of Emory University (1875-84),
Atticus Haygood was a missionary in Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston's
army. During August 1864, he held services twice each Sunday. As the city was
evacuated in September, furniture from refugees' homes was stored in the church.
Through the intervention of Father Thomas O'Reilly, pastor of Immaculate
Conception Catholic Church (48 Martin Luther King Drive SW, Atlanta), General
Sherman spared four churches, including Trinity.
In 1874, the church moved to a larger, more impressive building on the corner of Whitehall
and Peters Streets (which is now Trinity Avenue). The church remained at that site until 1911,
when they built the present structure on the southwest corner of Washington Street and
Trinity Avenue. The only ornamentation on this Gothic structure, designed by Walter T.
Downing, a prominent architect of the day, is a lofty tower projecting from the northwest
corner of the building. The "triumph of the whole construction," according to The Atlanta
Journal (October 27, 1912), are its stained glass windows, made of opaque glass. The north
windows depict themes from the Old Testament; the south windows show themes from the
New Testament. The center windows on the east side of the church contain symbols of the
Christian Trinity; windows on either side show figures representing the formation of the
church (the Apostle Paul and St. John Chrysostom on the left, Martin Luther and John
Wesley on the right). The elaborately carved chancel and pews, which originally came from
Germany, came from the Whitehall Street building. The organ, built by the
Austin Organ
Company in 1912, originally had four divisions: swell, orchestral, great, and echo. The last
division was not included in the 1995 renovation by A. E. Schlueter Pipe Organ Sales and
Service of Lithonia, GA. Five of its thirty-nine ranks of pipes came from the old Whitehall
Street church. Its construction uses the universal wind-chest method and is
electro-pneumatic. The current three-manual console in the sanctuary, which dates from 1916,
was rebuilt in 1995 to accommodate a solid-state memory system; a second, two-manual
console is located in the assembly hall behind the sanctuary.
Trinity is credited with planting the seeds for five Methodist churches in the Atlanta
area: in 1871 St. Paul (originally on Fair St.) and Evans Chapel on Stonewall St.
(which became Walker Street Church), in 1878 Asbury on Davis St., in 1879-81
Pierce Chapel (which became St. John's at Georgia Ave. and Pryor St.), and in
1882-85 Park Street in West End. In the 1880s and 1890s, Trinity sent at least five
missionaries overseas and was active in Home Missions. The Methodist "Epworth
League," predecessor of the "Wesley Fellowship," had its start in 1889 in Trinity's
"Young People's Christian League." During World War I, Trinity supported two Red
Cross units. On the Trinity church's 75th anniversary in 1929, The Atlanta Journal
wrote the following words of tribute to the church:
. . . with the rising fortunes of the new Atlanta came an even profounder
test. Prosperity flowed, and pride set high in the hearts of men [and
women]. But Trinity held true to its olden ideal. "Whosoever will be
chief among you, let him [or her] be your servant."
During the 1930s, Trinity operated a soup kitchen, staffed chiefly by the women of
the church, serving the city at a time when people stood in long food lines all across
this country.
In the 1950s, the building of freeways displaced residential housing on Capitol
Avenue, Washington Street, and surrounding neighborhoods. Responding to
changes in its environs, which now consists of government offices and public
housing, Trinity sought to minister to the growing homeless population in Atlanta. In
the 1960s, this ministry focused on the needs of the Capitol Homes community and others in the downtown area. During the 1970s,
1980s, and on into the 1990s, Trinity continued programs designed to meet the needs
of the inner-city:
- a soup kitchen serving 800 homeless people Sunday afternoons,
- a night shelter housing 30 men developed into a program helping men break the
cycles of substance abuse, unemployment, homelessness, and poverty,
- a transitional house for homeless men, and
- a Wednesday noon worship service and lunch for downtown workers,
shoppers, tourists.
In the 1990s, Trinity expanded its ministries to respond to the needs of
HIV/AIDS
victims.
Trinity United Methodist Church, a congregation of 250 members, strives to be open
to diverse expressions of Christian faith, to welcome persons from all religious,
racial, and ethnic backgrounds, social and economic stations, and sexual orientations
into the life of the congregation, and to offer its ministries to anyone in need.
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